St Paul’s Bay Is Malta’s Development Hotspot

St Paul’s Bay is the Maltese locality that has seen the most development ongoing development since the start of 2017, with 1,173 permits granted up until the end of February this year. 

Data on the location of granted permit applications for the period 2017-2021 show central and northern Malta bearing most of the brunt of the construction boom Malta has been in for the last five years or so. 

Gozo, on the other hand, is the region that has seen the largest increase in approved permits between 2017 and 2021, while Rabat and western Malta have witnessed ODZ development.  

St Paul’s Bay with most overall activity

St Paul’s Bay was the locality with the largest number of permits approved, though this is understandable given the fact that it has one of the largest populations and is also a tourist and entertainment hotspot. 

It is also worth noting that for the purpose of the statistics, Bugibba and Qawra are considered to fall under St Paul’s Bay. The locality also covers a significantly larger area when compared to other localities. 

Birkirkara, for example, was the locality with the second-highest number of approved permits, at 892, but it covers a far smaller area than St Paul’s Bay does. 

Mosta, Sliema and Qormi complete the remaining top five places with 843, 832 and 822 respectively. 

Zabbar, with 568 approved permits, was the village with the highest number of approved permits in the south of Malta, while Rabat (467) topped the list in Gozo. 

Localities in Gozo were generally more likely to have seen an increase in the number of permits approved when comparing 2017 with 2020.

West coast with most ODZ permits

Rabat was the locality with the largest number of ODZ permits approved. 307 such permits were in fact granted between 2017 and 2021. 

Siggiewi was the second most popular village for ODZ permits, with 232 approved since 2017. 

The third and fourth-highest number of permits were granted in St Paul’s Bay and Naxxar which both 206 approved permits.  

Naturally, the larger the rural area of a locality, the larger the number of ODZ permits approved, especially those, like Rabat, have a considerable amount of activity taking place within them.